Slovenia

[SI] Act on Public Usage of the Slovenian Language

IRIS 2004-7:1/30

Rainer Großhans

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Slovenian Parliament adopted the Act on Public Usage of the Slovenian Language on 15 July 2004. The Act stipulates, inter alia, that all legal entities under civil law and all natural persons should use Slovenian in their business relations with customers. If foreign customers are involved in a business activity, their language may also be used in addition to Slovenian.

There is also a provision on consumer protection, which states that the contents of all products sold on the Slovenian market must be described in Slovenian.

In the media sector, Article 22 of the Act stipulates that radio and TV programmes on Slovenian territory should be recorded in Slovenian. Programmes that are broadcast in another language by a Slovenian broadcaster must also be translated into Slovenian.